Interview: Paul Cherry Rediscovers His Voice During the Pandemic

Paul Cherry discusses his personal, professional, and musical journey during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Written by Beril Saygin

Photo courtesy of Paul Cherry

After the release of his 2018 album, Flavour, Chicago-based musician Paul Cherry had been living his dream as a full-time touring artist — until the COVID-19 pandemic changed the trajectory of his year. However, he has been working on making the best of a difficult situation. With a new album in the works, Cherry has also embarked on a journey to improve his mindset and health. 

Afterglow: How would you describe your music to someone who's never listened to it before?

Cherry: I would say it sounds really pleasing. Light, airy, pleasant.

How do you see yourself in terms of genre?

Cherry: I just kind of see myself as a 28-year-old guy who's struggling and who just wants to make songs about what I'm going through. I’m just trying to feel my creativity and let it out how I feel like I need to in whatever form it takes. It's a little esoteric, but I do like to let myself feel that way. What's the point of genre other than to categorize? 

Your album Flavour seems to tell a story about communication. What does that story mean to you, and why did you tell it?

Cherry: In the headspace that I was in (when the album came out), I was thinking a lot about who I was communicating with, how it was happening, and how it was affecting me. When I look back on those songs about that, I'd like to get myself back into the headspace that I was in two or three years ago. I'm in a completely different one now. (Flavour) was not really a story more than a bunch of mini-stories that were seemingly coalescing and colliding. I'm trying to do that right now with this new album — to take all the little thoughts and the little stories that you have and to converge them into one bigger message and then push that into the music.

Do you think the global events of 2020 or any of your personal events of this year are shaping your current projects?

Cherry: It's been a really weird and hard year for me. I had to basically go from being a full-time touring musician and living my life — having that intense privilege of getting to do exactly what I wanted — to having it kind of ripped away from me by the coronavirus. I’ve been trying to work on music through this difficult time, but I also had to work in the service industry and be a server during the pandemic at this Italian restaurant. 

I felt like I lost my dreams, and now I had to put my health at risk to make money to support me and my partner … just super hard times financially, emotionally.  It's been crippling, so the music that you're gonna hear from my next album is gonna have a twinge of pain, but I'm trying to make light of that pain. I'm trying to wrap everything up into a way we can laugh about it or maybe smile about what's good in this terrible time.

It's definitely just been an unprecedented year, but 2020 has also been for you, personally, a pretty significant year. Can you talk a little bit about how some of your personal journeys have shaped the year or shaped your music? I know you’re quitting nicotine, which is amazing.

Cherry: Thank you! I got engaged at the end of last year around Christmas — that was awesome. We had our wedding planned, and it didn't happen because of coronavirus. I was also planning on moving to Los Angeles this year, which also didn't happen because of the coronavirus. I feel like literally everything that I wanted to get or have happen this year for me wasn't able to. 

My personal journey (this year) has been one of trying to get back to what I think is truly important. I’m trying to maintain happiness and do things that I like to do without getting lost in TV, or my phone, or cigarettes, which is something I've been struggling with — pissing away my time on purpose, not being in the moment, not being thoughtful, not being mindful. I've been going through intense waves of mental checkout and then jumping back into mindfulness training. I listened to this “quit smoking” book, and it changed my mind about a lot of stuff. Being an artist, you want to have some sort of responsibility over your own thoughts. I think the world does a pretty good job of removing your free will and making you succumb to diverting your attention away from yourself and onto meaningless things. I think that I'm just a regular dude, and I'm just experiencing everyone else's experience. I'm just trying to vocalize it. 

With social media, especially, you can use a platform to keep yourself accountable and keep others accountable. Is that anything like what you've been doing?

Cherry: (Social media is) a difficult space for me to manage because there's been a big push for giving space to other voices, but everyone's speaking at the same time, and you don't know if anyone's listening. So although, I have what some people would consider a lot of followers — I wouldn't necessarily say that I do — I do recognize that I have a voice and I should use it. I've had a lot of trouble with my own self confidence and my own problems with ego this year. I got really quiet on social media: just not posting, not drawing attention to myself, not feeling like I had anything to say so I wouldn't say anything. 

So I have actually been having this big wake up in the last couple weeks, and I've been starting to be more interested in posting on my social media accounts, especially with quitting nicotine. I want to make sure that what I'm doing on my social media I truly like and I'm not faking it. It's my vessel to say whatever I want and be interpreting my life or showing whoever wants to see it a little slice of me. 

I remember at your concert in San Antonio, you mentioned you're from Chicago. So how has the Chicago music scene influenced you, and what has it looked like during the pandemic?

Cherry: I really like the people who make music (in Chicago). I actually wish I was more involved in the community than I currently am. I think when I started going on tour all the time for 2018 and 2019 I would get too tired to go out to shows, and now I regret that because there's no shows. The Chicago community was really good at building me up then I kind of felt like I abandoned it a little bit and didn't give back just out of being tired or being a little too cocky or feeling misunderstood.

Now I see everybody coming together over the pandemic: lots of people showing up for each other's live stream sets and making a lot of effort to put attention to a new album online because they're not going to get it in person. The pandemic has made me realize how much I really like the community here and I kind of took it for granted for a little bit, and I feel regretful of that. 

Who’s on your playlists right now? 

Cherry: Music-wise, I've been listening to a lot of Angela Bofill and the new Sunset Roller Coaster album. My friend David from the band TOPS has his own solo music now called DVC Refreshments that I really, really love. I've been listening to Sen Morimoto; he's really amazing. The new Shy Boys album I very much love. It's very sad for the times. And I always listen to a bunch of this really specific, middle/late ‘80s smooth jazz music like Dave Grusin or David Benoit, or some sort of fusion stuff Tony Williams or a lot of fusion jazz, Herbie Hancock, things like that. 

Do you find the music you listen to influences what you write?

Cherry: Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ve been going through this never ending Michael Franks phrase. I've been analyzing his music very deeply and transcribing a lot of his music. If you're interested in what I'm working on, maybe peek into Michael Franks' catalogue because I pay a lot of attention to it. 

To wrap up, is there anything else but you'd like our readers to know?

Cherry: I'd say just let them know that the new music is coming soon. I'm pretty much done with the album, but I'm just sitting on it and waiting for the right moment to strike.

This interview has been condensed and minimally edited for clarity and length.

Listen to Paul Cherry on Spotify.